Susan Tobocman adroitly mixes her interpretation of standards with a handful of her own clever compositions on this album with top tier support from Joel Frahm/ts-ss, Dave Eggar/cel, Pete McCann/g, Henry Hey/p-key, Matt Pavolka/b and Michael Sarin/dr.
Her voice is clear in enunciation, and she makes each syllable count as she glides through a rich read of Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman” and bounces with a bop on “The Man I Love”. She shows her emotional range with two diverse reads of The Beatles’ “Help”; the first one is a lonely plea with Spartan support, and the latter a dramatic grasp with a full band.
Her own material has her teamed with Frahm’s soprano on the sleek “Leaves of Absence” and swinging with the team and Frahm’s tenor on “Make Believe”. She works well with Hey during the post bopping title track and is luminous with McCann on the well soundtrack p iece “Where Is Love”. Songs acted out well.